The Tekken 3 Champ belt design is one of the most inspired that I've come up with so far, and this is a belt that I've been wanting to make for a very long time -- since 1998.

Way back when I was still working at SegaSoft, Tekken 3 was the game of choice at lunchtime. The original trophy for the game was a little porcelain monkey. After a while, I donated a couple of cheap WWF foil belts to the participants to use as trophies. While these belts were "okay," I always wanted a belt that actually said "Tekken 3" instead of "WWF World Heavyweight Champion." And that's what led me to this hobby!

The design of this belt also has the funniest story. When I first hunkered down to design the main plate, I wanted the design to have a distinctly oriental look to it, specifically Japanese. The trouble was I've always found traditional Nippongo designs generally monochromatic and dull. So I just started tossing things together and seeing how they looked. In the process, I got this bright idea to use the Yin-Yang icon as the backdrop of the main plate, with the added effect of a superimposed world map. I also used a lot of red, gold and silver tones. And, to imply that this is a "World" championship without having the word "world" on the design, I added the flags of the countries of the game's characters.

In the end, I think the belt looked real cool and oriental, but the design is very Chinese.

Here are some images of the finished belt: